F.   ROBERT-- E.  COWflN  COLLECTION 

I'RESKXTF.D    TO    THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

r    P    HUNTINGTON 
;ne,  1897.  ■■ 

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ADDRESS 

AT  THE   OPKNIXC;   Ol'"   THK 

Thirtieth  Industrial  Exposition 


DELIVRRKD    BY 


K.     A.     DENICKE, —  Kc  H  ^  -  •   ^ 


PRESIDENT  OF  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTE. 


San  Francisco,  August  17tli,  1897. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — It  is  my  pleasant  duty  to  welcome 
you  to  the  Thirtieth  Industrial  Exi)osition  of  the  INIechanics' 
Institute.  I  hope  you  will  agree  with  me,  that  eacli  Exposition 
is  an  improvement  on  the  last. 

On  this  occasion,  in  compliance  witli  a  resolution  passed  at 
a  late  congress  in  this  city,  our  chief  feature  will  be  an  exhibi- 
tion of  Pure  Food.  In  his  address  of  welcome  to  the  members 
of  that  congress.  Mayor  Phelan  observed:  "While  war  slays 
her  thousands,  peace  slays  her  tens  of  thousands  with  agencies 
carried  on  through  the  ordinary  channels  of  trade- -that  is, 
l)y  deatlis  caused  by  disease-bearing  foods."  On  the  same  occa- 
sion, President  Kerr,  of  the  Manufacturers'  and  Producers' 
Association,  said:  "It  is  a  well  established  fact  that  no  State 
can  hope  to  reach  its  true  development  which  does  not  contain 
within  its  limits  not  only  the  producer,  who  takes  from  the 
hand  of  nature  the  materials  required  liy  mankind,  but  also 
the  manufacturer,  who  converts  the  products  into  the  finished 
forms  required  by  modern  civilization.  To  combine  these  pro- 
cesses, so  that  we  can  become  as  nearly  self-supporting  as  eco- 
nomical conditions  will  permit,  should  be  the  aim  of  every 
enlightened  citizen.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  manufacturer  to 
guard  the  interest  of  the  producer  as  his  own;  while,  in  turn,  it 


is  the  interest  of  the  ])roducer  to  foster  the  development  of 
manufacturers,  so  that  their  combined  efforts  shall  result  in  a 
perfect  product,  which  shall  he  sought  for  by  commerce  at  home 
and  abroad." 

The  same  thought  inspired  the  Board  of  Health  to  undertake 
an  inspection  of  foods,  with  a  view  to  extinguish  the  trade 
in  spurious  foods.  This  was  a  wise  idea.  The  prosperity  of 
this  State  largely  depends  upon  the  excellence  and  purity  of 
the  articles  produced  here  for  sale  at  home  and  abroad,  and,  as 
this  is  a  food-producing  State,  upon  the  excellence  and  purity 
of  our  food  products  especially.  The  agitation  against  impure 
food  is  not  confined  to  California.  It  has  spread  throughout 
the  world,  and  the  region  which  establishes  a  reputation  as  a 
pure  food  producer,  is  the  region  which  will  take  in  the  shekels. 
By  vigorously  insisting  that  every  article  which  bears  the  Cali- 
fornia brand  shall  be  what  it  purports  to  he,  and  the  best  vari- 
ety of  its  class,  we  shall  attract  custom  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  the  money  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America, 
will  come  here  to  enrich  our  growers,  our  manufacturers  and 
our  merchants. 

We  want  to  perfect  our  processes  so  that  the  words  "made  in 
California  "  shall  be,  all  the  world  over,  a  guarantee  of  quality, 
purity  and  general  excellence.  Nature  has  done  much  to  help 
us  to  this  end.  Commercial  honor,  which  is  deeply  rooted 
among  our  people,  will  assist  by  making  the  adulterator  an 
object  of  scorn  and  contempt.  But  technical  knowledge,  which 
teaches  how  to  improve  our  ])rocesses,  and  to  take  advantage 
of  scientific  discoveries  and  the  invention  of  genius,  is  also  re- 
quired to  accomplish  the  end,  and  it  is  to  promote  that  knowl- 
edge that  exhibitions,  like  the  one  I  now  invite  you  to  inspect, 
are  designed.  It  is  not  enough  that  our  State  should  bloom 
like  a  garden.  We  must  learn  how  to  deal  with  its  fruits  so  as 
to  extract  from  them  their  utmost  possible  utility  and  attrac- 
tiveness. It  is  only  when  we  have  learned  this  that  they  will 
be  sought  for  by  consumers  in  every  region  under  the  sun,  and 
our  cities  will  become  hives  of  industry,  splendid  with  palaces 
and  monuments,  tliis  the  metropolis  of  the  Pacific,  as  New  York 
is  the  metropolis  of  the  Atlantic. 


Fifty  years  ago,  a  rebellion  against  impure  food  broke  out  in 
England;  there  was  hardly  an  article  of  common  consumption 
that  was  not  adulterated,  and  there  did  not  seem  to  be  anyway 
of  punishing  the  adulterators.  At  that  crisis  a  chemist,  whose 
name  was  Hassall,  undertook  to  smoke  out  the  dealers  in 
spurious  articles,  and  he  went  about  his  work  in  a  very  ingen- 
uous way;  he  bought  at  various  stores  small  (quantities  of  lead- 
ing articles  of  consumption,  such  as  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  chocolate, 
l)read,  butter,  cheese,  preserves,  pepper,  vinegar,  wine,  beer  and 
spirits,  these  he  analyzed,  and  he  published  the  analysis  in  the 
"  Lancet "  newspaper,  with  the  names  and  addresses  of  the 
dealers  who  had  sold  him  adulterated  articles,  A  terrible 
storm  arose.  The  "Lancet"  and  Hassell  were  flooded  with 
libel  suits.  But  they  kept  on  smilingly,  and  the  end  of  the 
fight  was  that  no  conviction  could  be  got  against  the  paper  or 
the  chemist.  The  fraudulent  dealers  lost  their  customers,  a 
law  was  passed  in  Parliament  to  fit  their  case,  and  now  it  is  as 
hard  to  find  in  London  an  adulterated  article  as  it  was  fifty 
years  ago  to  find  a  pure  one.  I  hope  that  the  Exhibition  now 
opened  will  induce  some  of  you  to  take  equally  energetic 
measures  to  maintain  the  reputation  of  California  as  a  producer 
of  pure  food. 

I  am  sorry  to  have  to  say  to  you  that  the  successive  Mechanics' 
Institute  Fairs,  while  demonstrating  the  development  of  the 
State  as  a  producer,  have  not  iflustrated  a  corresponding  pro- 
gress in  manufactures.  This  has  been  due  to  various  causes, 
one  of  which  is  the  high  price  of  coal.  I  am  happy  to  express 
to  you  my  hope  that  this  drawback  is  likely  to  be  removed; 
what  stearr  has  been  to  the  nineteenth  century,  electricity  will 
be  to  the  twentieth;  and  I  look  forward  to  the  time  when,  in- 
stead of  bringing  coal  from  the  mines,  it  will  be  converted  on 
the  spot  into  an  electric  fluid,  which  will  be  conducted  by  wiresj 
to  the  cities  and  villages,  there  to  be  used  for  power,  light  and 
heat.  This  will  not  only  cheapen  all  the  processes  of  manu- 
facturing industry,  it  will  substitute  for  the  mephitic  coal  gases, 
which  are  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  disease  in  the  crowded 
haunts  of  men,  an  atmosphere  as  pure  as  that  of  the  country, 


and  will  bestow  on  the  working  class  the  blessings  of  fresh  air 
while  they  are  enjoying  the  blessing  of  pure  food. 

The  foaming  torrent  of  Niagara  has  been  harnessed  and 
buckled  to  machinery  for  the  creation  of  electricity  in  the  great 
State  of  New  York.  We  have,  in  this  State,  water  power  in 
the  streams  and  lakes  of  the  Sierras,  which  can  be  utilized  in 
the  same  way.  There  is  no  limit  to  the  volume  of  electricity 
which  skillful  engineering  can  make  them  yield.  Machinery 
adapted  for  the  purpose  was  exhibited  at  our  last  Mechanics' 
Fair.  By  turning  it  to  account,  California  will  ask  no  odds  of 
States  which  are  more  bountifully  supplied  with  the  best  kinds 
of  coal,  and  will  overcome  the  drawback  of  its  geological 
formation. 

But  this  new  power,  with  its  vast  possil)ilities.  should  remain 
the  property  of  the  people  of  the  State,  and  be  guarded  against 
monopoly  by  individuals  or  corporations.  A  special  bureau 
should  be  created  by  the  Legislature,  with  authority  and 
means  to  erect  the  necessary  plants  and  storage  reservoirs. 
Such  a  bureau  could  be  manned  by  a  selection  from  the  most 
distinguished  graduates  in  engineering  at  the  two  universities, 
and  there  is  ample  labor  in  our  cities  to  perform  the  mechani- 
cal work.  Under  proper  management,  electrical  works,  such  as 
supply  the  Folsom  prison  with  the  power  it  uses,  would  become 
a  source  of  income  for  the  State,  and  might  in  time  justify  a 
reduction  in  the  tax  levy.  * 

A  question  arises,  however,  it  can  not  be  kept  back,  are  our 
California  boys  and  girls  receiving  such  an  education  as  will 
enable  them  to  take  advantage  of  "the  tide  in  the  affairs  of 
men,  which  taken  at  the  flood,  will  lead  to  fortune?"  Are 
they  receiving  a  proper  technical  education?  I  look  upon  this 
question  as  one  of  the  most  important  we  have  to  grapple  with 
to-day — as  a  question  which  should  be  especially  considered  at 
the  thirtieth  fair  of  our  Institute,  which  ever  since  its  birth, 
has  by  its  library,  its  classes,  its  lectures  and  its  fairs,  estab- 
lished a  right  to  consider  itself  a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  techni- 
cal and  mechanical  education. 

The  whole  of  the  United  States  is  drying  up  for  the  want  of 
technical  education.     It  is  dropping  behind  other  nations,  and 


growing  poor  when  they  are  growing  rich.  There  is  an  army 
of  unemployed  workers,  because  the  workers  are  unskilled,  and 
consumers  are  obliged  to  send  abroad  for  articles  which  we 
might  just  as  well  make  at  home,  if  we  had  the  skill.  An  un- 
skilled workman  is  like  an  unarmed  soldier.  He  is  helpless, 
and  cumbers  the  earth.  He  is  an  incubus  for  want  of  techni- 
cal training. 

This  is  especiiilly  the  case  in  textile  industry.  We  cannot 
compete  with  European  nations  in  textile  fabrics;  not  from 
want  of  brains,  not  from  want  of  raw  material,  but  because  we 
do  not  know  how.  In  quality,  a  part  of  our  technical  schools 
are  fully  equal  to  similar  establishments  in  Europe,  but  there 
are  not  enough  of  them,  and  the  children  of  the  poor  have  not 
been  educated  to  make  use  of  those  which  exist.  Look  at  Ger- 
many; once,  and  not  so  very  long  ago,  at  the  l)ottom  of  the 
ladder,  and  now  at  the  top,  owing  to  her  splendid  system  of 
technical  education.  During  our  Centennial  Exposition,  in 
1876,  the  German  exhibit  was  the  object  of  a  report  by  Com- 
missioner Herr  Reuleaux;  he  summed  up  his  conclusion  in  the 
drastic  phrase,  '^Billig  und  schlecht.^^  (Cheap  and  nasty).  It 
was  indeed  far  behind  the  exhibits  of  England,  France  and  the 
United  States.  Germany  realized  the  truth  of  the  Commis- 
sioner's verdict,  and  set  to  work  with  energy,  foresight,  intelli- 
gence and  patriotism,  to  rei)air  her  defects.  The  result  is 
known  to  all.  In  the  windows  of  stores  not  only  in  England 
and  this  country,  but  all  over  the  world,  goods  are  marked, 
"  Made  in  Germany." 

Seventeen  years  after  the  Centennial  Fair,  Germany's  exhibit 
at  Chicago  was  a  veritable  triumph  in  many  branches  of  indus- 
try as  well  as  in  science  and  art.  She  had  raised  herself  to  the 
first  rank  among  producing  nations  by  the  careful  education  of 
her  masses.  United  States  Consul  Monaghan,  of  Manheim, 
gives  the  results  of  his  observations  in  a  valuable  paper,  wherein 
he  says;  ''The  schools  are  here,  never  to  go.  The  sooner  we 
get  them  in  the  United  States — for  get  them  we  must,  if  we 
will  hold  our  home  markets,  to  say  nothing  about  foreign — the 
better."  United  States  Consul  General  Raine  says  of  the  Cre- 
feld  school  of  weaving:    ''Some  years  ago  the  Crefeld  industry 


6 

was  nearly  ruined;  the  old  manufactories  were  unable  to  strug- 
gle any  longer  against  French,  English  and  Swiss  firms.  A 
few  Crefeld  manufacturers,  dejected  but  not  discouraged, 
founded  in  this  city  a  weaving  school,  and  this  very  soon 
changed  the  situation.  Now  the  Crefeld  factories  contest  with 
even  Lyons  for  the  supply  of  the  markets.''  United  States 
Consular  Agent  Neuer,  in  his  description  of  the  Gera  weaving 
school,  says:  "  I  commend  the  German  system  of  technical 
education  as  well  worthy  the  serious  consideration  of  our  man- 
ufacturers, as  trained  and  skilled  operatives  must  be  of  vast 
service  to  us.  It  is  an  important  factor,  and  closely  connected 
with  the  highest  interest  of  oar  laboring  classes.  The  advance- 
ment of  German  commerce  in  all  parts  of  the  world  is  generally 
admitted,  and  while  government  aid  may  partly  account  for 
the  fact,  it  is  no  less  the  superior  schooling  of  the  people  which 
opens  new  markets  for  the  Germans."  In  fact,  so  rapid  has 
been  Germany's  rise  as  a  manufacturing  country,  and  so  excel- 
lent has  been  the  quality  of  the  goods  exported,  that  she  has 
successfully  challenged  England  in  her  own  home  m;irket. 

Manual  training  and  technical  schools  have  been  established 
in  every  European  country,  and  in  Japan  likewise.  Statesmen 
believe  that  it  is  wise,  economical  and  patriotic  to  insist  upon 
such  academical  studies  as  will  make  the  student  both  a  better 
man  and  a  more  efficient  producing  machine.  The  mechanic 
of  the  future  will  need  something  more  than  the  rudiments  of 
mechanics;  he  will  require  general  culture  as  well,  and  a  broad 
knowledge  of  the  requirements  of  humanity,  to  make  a  man  of 
him;  he  must  be  taught  something  of  the  constitution  of  his 
country,  and  something  of  social  science,  so  that  he  shall  know 
the  record  of  human  progress,  understand  the  feeling  of  patri- 
otism, and  estimate  the  value  of  liberty.  His  training  must 
fit  him  to  vote  intelligently.  He  can  learn  all  this,  together 
with  the  practical  rules  of  his  calling,  at  a  technical  school, 
if  it  be  intelligently  conducted. 

Mr.  Felix  Adler,  the  Director  of  the  Workingmens'  School  of 
New  York,  explained  the  purpose  of  such  schools  in  terse 
phrase: — "  The  worker  in  the  factory  of  to-day  too  often  moves 
like  a  machine  among  machines.     He  does  not  comprehend  the 


wonderful  processes  which  occur  around  him,  and  his  mind  is 
blunted  and  degraded  by  constant  contact  with  operations  of 
whose  principles  he  is  ignorant.  Far  otherwise  would  it  Ije  if 
he  could  be  so  far  educated  as  to  understand  the  nature  of  the 
material  with  which  he  deals,  the  laws  which  the  gigantic 
forces  which  he  utilizes  obey,  and  if  the  mechanical  contrivances 
among  which  he  labors  became  transparent  to  his  eyes  so  as  to 
reveal  their  underlying  plan.  The  worker  becomes  truly  inde- 
pendent then,  when  he  has  intellectually  mastered  his  work, 
and  it  is  one  of  the  fairest  promises  of  the  creative  method  and 
of  manual  training  that  it  will  build  up  the  intelligence,  give  a 
new  dignity  to  labor  by  putting  mind  into  it,  and  saturate  the 
daily  toil  of  the  masses  of  mankind  with  understanding." 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  Wright  says,  in  one  of 
his  reports:  "  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  German  craftsman,  with 
so  many  incentives  to  study,  with  so  many  facilities  of  acquir- 
ing skill  in  his  trade,  and  living  in  the  atmosphere  of  industrial 
thought,  becomes  the  accomplished  specialist  that  he  is." 

At  the  present  time,  the  boy  leaves  the  public  school  with  his 
education  incomplete  to  learn  his  trade  in  the  shop.  When  the 
manual  and  technical  schools  of  training  are  as  numerous  as  I 
hope  and  believe  they  soon  will  be,  he  will  leave  one  school  to 
enter  a  higher  one,  where  besides  becoming  a  skilled  mechanic 
his  moral  and  mental  education  will  i)r()ceed  hand  in  hand 
with  his  technical  training. 

The  great  nations  of  Europe  have  learned  a  bitter  lesson  by 
Germany's  competition!  Can  we  afford  to  ignore  it  and  neglect 
their  experience  ?  We  pay  out  millions  upon  millions  for 
goods  which  are  not  made  at  home,  for  want  of  technical  edu- 
cation. 

We  now  have  a  Tariff — may  it  remain  undisturbed  for  many 
years!  so  that  Congress  can  busy  itself  with  the  revival  of  our. 
Merchant  Marine,  and  then  may  it  be  hoped  that  it  will  find 
time  to  consider  a  subject  which  is  vital  not  only  to  our  trade 
and  industry,  but  to  the  wellbeing  of  the  entire  laboring  class! 
But  whatever  it  does,  we,  here  in  California,  owe  to  ourselves, 
to  foster  technical  education,  and  to  help  the  Lick  school,  the 
various  technical  branches  of  common  school  system,  and  tlie 


8 

Wilmerding  school,  which  is  about  to  be  built,  to  supply  Cali- 
fornia with  skillful  artisans  enough  to  make  this  a  great 
manufacturnig  State. 

One  last  word.  One  morning  this  summer,  before  sunrise,  I 
stood  on  the  summit  of  a  spur  of  the  Sierras.  Before  me 
stretched  the  rich  valleys  of  the  Sacramento  and  the  San 
Joaquin,  with  their  thousands  of  happy  homes,  and  along  their 
Eastern  l)order,  the  lofty  snow-topped  giants  of  the  Sierra.  A 
beam  of  pale  light  shot  across  the  Eastern  sky,  then  the  peaks 
of  the  snow-tipped  mountains  glowed  with  roseate  fire,  and 
gradually  the  welcome  sun  poured  its  golden  rays  down  the 
slopes,  along  the  rippling  streams,  to  the  valley  below.  In  the 
rivulets  silvery  trout  leaped  in  joyful  greeting  to  meet  him;  the 
loaded  grain  bowed  its  heavy  head  in  thankful  recognition;  the 
apricot,  the  apple  and  the  peach  turned  their  blushing  cheeks 
his  way  for  their  morning  kiss;  and  the  rose,  the  magnolia  and 
the  morning  glory  unfolded  their  bursting  buds  to  receive  his 
eager  embrace.  All  this  passed  before  my  fancy  as  I,  too,  felt 
the  comforting  warmth  of  the  great  planet's  first  rays.  Over- 
powered by  so  much  blessing,  I  would  have  thrown  myself 
upon  my  face  to  relieve  an  overflowing  heart  in  grateful  tears, 
but,  as  I  moved,  I  heard  a  whirring,  hateful  noise,  and  there 
before  me  lay  in  mottled  coil,  its  ugly  head  raised,  about  to 
strike,  a  rattlesnake.  Bounding  backward,  I  caught  up  a  heavy 
boulder,  and  crushed  the  reptile.  Then,  winding  my  steps 
downward,  I  thought  how  our  fair  daughters  and  struggling 
sons  were  also  threatened  and  robbed  of  the  full  enjoyment  of 
their  life  by  a  nasty  reptile  in  human  form — I  mean  the  polit- 
ical "boss,"  who  is  poisoning  our  civic  life.  We,  too,  must  find 
a  boulder  to  crush  him,  and  it  is  at  hand.  One  hundred  men, 
good  and  true,  are  working  night  and  day  to  find  it.  When 
they  have  it,  it  will  rest  with  you  to  use  it — for  the  boulder  I 
mean  is  the  Neio  Charier. 


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